The reason we feel this really has resonated with our 401(k)
savers and retirement savers overall
is because it isn't a dollar amount that can seem daunting.
The last thing you want to do is put out a dollar amount that's
going to be discouraging.
You want to put out guidance, at least Fidelity wants to put out
guidance that's going to encourage
people to save for retirement.
So the fact that this is based on variables that people
understand and the fact that it's not based on dollars,
we feel that that's why it's much more easy for a lot
of retirement savers to grasp, and hopefully will
be a good guide for people as they save and approach
their retirement age.
The two most common questions we usually get from our retirement
savers are how much am I going to need for retirement
and am I on track to reach that goal.
Now, the problem was, if you go back several years,
if you asked those questions, the response
would be more questions.
So for instance, what percentage of your pre-retirement income
do you want to replace?
What sort of lifestyle do you expect in retirement?
What sort of tax bracket do you expect to be in?
And someone who's, let's say, in their 30s, who may have just
gotten married or they're trying to save for a house,
you know, they're looking for that guidance
from their financial provider, as opposed to having
to answer a lot more questions.
So we came up with some guidelines that were based
on two variables that we thought everyone would know,
your age and your salary.
So this tells people if they are on track, if they might need
to save a little bit more, so they're
aware of where they are in their savings journey
before it's too late.
You don't want to find out three to four years before retirement
that you're only going to have a portion of what you initially
expected, or a portion of what you might need to live the life
in retirement that you want.
So those were some of the main drivers
that helped us develop this.
There's two things that we really
encourage people to do when it comes to retirement savings.
Take a long-term approach.
Saving for retirement is a marathon, not a sprint.
And try to have a plan in place so that when you reach
retirement, you have some details in place that will
allow you to understand how to make the most of what
you have saved.
So even if you're not able to hit that 10x variable
by the age 68, if you have a plan,
you can make the most of whatever you have saved up
until that point and hopefully, again,
live the lifestyle in retirement that you're hoping for.